San Francisco Giants' Gregor Blanco, (7) on Wednesday Feb. 26, 2014, at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Arizona. Major League Baseball players on the San Francisco Giants' comment on the violence currently striking their homeland of Venezuela.

San Francisco Giants' Pablo Sandoval, (48) at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Arizona on Wednesday Feb. 26, 2014. Major League Baseball players on the San Francisco Giants' comment on the violence currently striking their homeland of Venezuela.

Spring training is a time for fresh starts and renewed optimism, but that isn't the case for a growing number of participants in America's pastime. The crisis in Venezuela is looming large on the baseball fields of Arizona and Florida, where dozens of players are increasingly worried about escalating violence back home.

Venezuelans from the Giants and A's are among those who have gathered for photos calling for unity and peace in their country - only to find themselves caught in a game of politics.

President Nicolas Maduro accused major-league baseball owners of helping to stage the photos, saying that "Venezuelan major-league players are being pressured to appear in portraits that say SOS Venezuela."

"It's so wrong," Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval said of Maduro's comments. The photos, posted through Twitter and Instagram, are important to support "all of the people who have lost family there," Sandoval said. "We do that for them because it's important how you care about your country, how you care about the things that happen.

"I want a better country," added Sandoval, one of 11 Venezuelans in the Giants' training camp. "I want the Venezuela that it was when I was a little kid - kids playing in the street and all that stuff. I don't care about the (politics). I care about my country being free. No more violence."

Venezuela's heightened turbulence in recent weeks, resulting in at least 18 deaths and hundreds of injuries, has come amid protests against Maduro, who took over the country's leadership after the death of Hugo Chavez and blames opposition politicians for sparking the unrest.

The public is angry about a sinking economy, spiraling crime rate and shortages of food, products and services. Protesters, largely students, have taken to the streets, and the government has cracked down, sending the National Guard armed with bullets and tear gas into neighborhoods.

Players, coaches speak out

Major League Baseball is monitoring the strife and communicating with teams, but officials have limited their comments for security reasons. That hasn't stopped the league's heavy Venezuelan contingent of players and coaches from speaking out in interviews and on social media.

A's coach Ariel Prieto is a native of Cuba who coached in Venezuela (Puerto la Cruz) for six seasons, and his girlfriend is from Venezuela. He organized the A's photo shoot and scoffed at Maduro for suggesting the action was forced.

"We wanted to show that all together we want a new Venezuela and freedom," Prieto said. "The government right now, it's like the government we had when I was in Cuba. A lot of students go into the street and protest. I'm not there, but if I was I would do the same thing, because they have to change things now, they can't wait."

Venezuela has produced the second-most big-leaguers among foreign countries, behind the Dominican Republic, and the numbers are rising: from 16 Venezuelans on Opening Day rosters in 1995 to 63 last year. The 2012 World Series, pitting the Giants and Tigers, had a record nine Venezuelans, including the Series MVP, Sandoval.

Among the Venezuelan-born Giants, outfielder Gregor Blanco is most fearful because his family lives closest to the capital, Caracas, where much of the violence has occurred. He said his dad, a driver, stopped going to work in the city when the shootings began, but his brother, a government employee, goes in every day.

"My older sons live in Caracas," Blanco said. "I'm really afraid about those things. I always tell them to stay safe, don't go to the streets, until all the things settle down first."

'It's been bad'

Violence is nothing new in Venezuela. Jose Martinez is an A's infield prospect who lost his father, grandmother and two uncles, all murdered by burglars in February 2009. The family had gathered for Martinez's grandmother's 67th birthday celebration, and he would have gone, too, if he hadn't arrived early for spring training with the Cardinals.

"It was my grandmother's birthday, and they were all there to celebrate when a couple of guys broke into the house to rob it, and they started shooting," Martinez said. "They killed my uncles, my grandmother, my dad, too. It happened very quickly.

"It was tough for us to deal with, but not impossible. With God's help, we have become stronger. It's been bad in Venezuela like that."

Martinez said some family members are in Valencia, a safe distance from Caracas, while his wife and daughters accompany him in Arizona. "It's good for the country," Martinez said, "that baseball and people everywhere are telling them, 'Stop doing that.' "

Journeyman pitcher Fernando Nieve, who has friends in a Caracas apartment building that was tear-gassed, added, "Venezuelans who are here in the U.S. want to let the people who are fighting (the government) know that we care about them."

Martinez, Nieve, Alberto Callaspo and Jose Flores are the four Venezuelans in A's camp. A fifth, Darwin Perez, remains in limbo in Caracas, still waiting for his visa. Manager Bob Melvin had hoped Perez would arrive this weekend, but it's not expected until at least Wednesday.

"We deal with people at consulates, and normally it's not an issue," A's traveling secretary Mickey Morabito said. "For some reason, his paperwork has been delayed. We don't have real answers."

Players don't, either. Giants catcher Guillermo Quiroz was carjacked at gunpoint twice in Venezuela, and his family home was invaded twice by armed robbers, cleaning out the place. Quiroz was not in the house either time, but much of his extended family was.

Now, he and his Giants teammates routinely watch the news and see student protesters being killed and feel compelled to do something, which is hard from thousands of miles away.

"We're just trying to get people not to get hurt," Quiroz said. "The last couple of weeks ... people have gotten killed, and they're students. It's not worth it for them to die just because they're protesting."

The Venezuelan major-leaguers have no weapons, just words and a reputation as heroes.

"I think a lot of people in Venezuela follow baseball," Quiroz said, "and when you see guys like Omar Vizquel and Miguel Cabrera and Felix Hernandez holding signs like that, they've got to be a little conscious of it and say, 'Hey, these guys are doing something.' "

Blanco just wants unity.

"It's about us. It's about all Venezuelans," he said, "You can see the way we are here (in baseball). We are people from different countries, different cultures, and we're still 'one guy.' That's the way we're supposed to be back home."